General quotes

Personal avowals

Recommendations

If you can harmonize and delight in all things, master them and never be at a loss for joy, if you can do this day and night without a break and make it be spring with everything, mingling with all and creating the moment within your own mind – this is what I call being whole in power. Zhuangzi [Chuang Tzu] (~365-290 BC) influential Chinese philosopher during the warring states period, Burton Watson (1925-2017) US American translator of Chinese and Japanese literature and poetry, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, S. 74, Columbia University Press, 1st edition 15. April 1968, 1. June 1968

The only courage you will ever need is the courage to live the life of your own dreams. Ophrah Winfrey (*1954) US American talk show host, actress, visionary, billionaire, philanthropist, source unknown

This universe is a mass shared dream that all six-and-a-half billion of us are collaboratively dreaming up into materialization. When we realize this, we can put our lucidity together so that we can co-creatively dream a much more grace-filled universe into incarnation. This is nothing other than an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness, unimaginable until now. Paul Levy (*1956) US American psycho-activating healer, artist, author, The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity, 2010

We have no dreams at all or interesting ones. We should learn to be awake the same way – not at all or in an interesting manner. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) German classical scholar, philologist, critic of culture, philosopher of nihilism, writer, The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], section 232, Leipzig, 1882, Random House, New York, 1974

It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays (1894-1984) US American minister, educator, scholar, social activist, What a Man Lives By, cited in: William M. Philpot, editor, Best Black Sermons, 1972

The real difficulty begins -when the dreams do not point to anything tangible, and this they do often enough, especially when they hold anticipations of the future. I do not mean that such dreams are necessarily prophetic, merely that they feel the way, they "reconnoitre." These dreams contain inklings of possibilities and for that reason can never be made plausible to an outsider. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychiatrist, psychoanalytist, founder of a new school of depth psychology, Practice of Psychotherapy. Collected Works of C. G. Volume 16, 1931, S. 89, Princeton University Press, 2nd edition 1. June 1966, cited in: Stephen Parker, Ph.D., US American psychologist, article selection and commentary Carl Jung: Ten Quotations About Dreams, presented by the JungCurrents.com, 28. January 2011

In our sleep we consult the 2,000,000-year-old man which each of us represents. Interview with Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychiatrist, psychoanalytist, founder of a new school of depth psychology, author, presented by the US American daily newspaper The New York Times, 4. October 1936

Dreams are that of which the subconscious is made, for any condition every becoming reality is first dreamed. Reading 136-7

There are dreams that are produced by conditions of the digestive system. There are the relations of the mental with those of the spiritual condition. Dreams: There are those manifestations that come as the correlations of mental forces in a physical body to the mental forces of other bodies and conditions. Reading 900-13

Dreams: Some are produced by suggestions as reach the consciousness of the physical, through the various forms and manners as these. (Indigestion causes nightmares.) Interpret dreams: Correlate those Truths that are enacted in each and every dream that becomes a part of this, or the entity of the individual, and use such to the better developing, ever remembering develop means going toward the higher forces, or the Creator. Reading 3744-4

(Variations of Dreams)

Food induced,

Then there is the mental condition of the body wherein worry, trouble, or any unusual action of the mind-mentally-physically – causes seeking for the way and manner of understanding.

From the experiences of the subconscious forces. Reading 4167-1

The astrological influences reach consciousness through what may be called dreams or visions, or the unconscious forces; while the influences from earthly sojourns or the associations reach consciousness through association of ideas, activities and relationships which arouse the awareness. Reading 2310-2

Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world. Erich Fromm (1900-1980) US American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, author, cited in: Article, presented by the US American daily newspaper The New York Times, 5. January 1964

The only way you can talk about this great tide in which you’re a participant is as Schopenhauer did: the universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. Joseph Campbell, Ph.D. (1904-1987) US American mythologist, expert in comparative mythology and comparative religion, author, A Joseph Campbell Companion. Reflections on the Art of Living, Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2nd Kindle edition August 2011

[T]he idea that dreamless sleep is an unconscious state is not well-supported by the evidence.This is not to claim that conscious mental activity continues throughout sleep. Whether periods of unconsciousness occur in sleep alongside dreaming and dreamless sleep experience is, in our view, an open empirical question. The more pressing point is that, given the available evidence, it seems unlikely that all stages of sleep currently classed as dreamless necessarily or consistently involve a loss of phenomenal consciousness.

By embracing your subconscious, you gain a different way of seeing and experiencing – an expanded perception that opens a doorway, not only to lucid dreams, but also to the mythic dimension. As in lucid dreams, you see yourself or others with new eyes; your senses awaken and grasp an experience more fully than ever before; suddenly, you find your ears are open to hear with a deeper understanding. Jenny Davidow, US American hypnotherapist, coach, trainer, author, Embracing Your Subconscious. Bringing All Parts of You into Creative Partnership, New Leaf Distributors, 1st edition April 1996

Research analyzed 160 individual dream reports of both lucid and non-lucid dreamers, examining the responses to both logical and creative tasks. They found no significant differences between lucid and non-lucid dreamers in terms of the logical problem solving. When it came to solving creative problems, however, researchers' analysis determined that lucid dreamers had an edge over non-lucid dreamers. Lucid dreamers were more successful in creating metaphors than non-lucid dreamers. Blog article Dreaming and Our Waking Lives, presented by the US American liberal-oriented online newspaper The Huffington Post, Dr. Michael J. Breus, US American clinical psychologist, board certified sleep specialist, 5. December 2014, updated 4. February 2015

Those who want to remember their dreams can do so, and those who do not want to do not. Stephen LaBerge (*1947) US American psychophysiologist, researcher scientific study of lucid dreaming, cited in: Roger Walsh, Ph.D., M.D., Australian professor of psychiatry, philosophy and anthropology, University of California, Irvine, editor, Frances Vaughan, Ph.D. (†2017) US American transpersonal psychologist, educator, spiritual author, editor, Paths Beyond Ego, subheading "Learning Lucid Dreaming", S. 78, Tarcher, 15. September 1993

[Carl Gustav] Jung’s childhood dream of the deceased "phallus king" in his grave, happened at almost the same time and place as Nietzsche's pronouncement of God's death: We must not overlook the time at which the childhood dream appeared to Jung. It was the moment when the cry "God is dead" was ringing out. If we can locate Jung's dream in the year 1879-80, then there is barely a year between it and this famous proclamation of Friedrich Nietzsche, recorded in his book of aphorisms, Joyful Wisdom (1881), conceived during his summer stay in Sils Maria ( thus also in Switzerland). And it was not only the death of God that the great "soul-diviner" had described – before Freud, Adler, or Jung. Did he not also already have an inkling, after the great eclipse and darkness of God, of the "next steps," that "almost indescribable kind of light, happiness, relief, cheerfulness, encouragement, dawn"? Furthermore, Jung must have felt even within his own family – beginning, for instance, with his father's inability to believe – how fragile the traditional theology and religion of the dead god had become. But if the religious-historical amplification of the phallus's double aspect of death and life is correct, then C. G. Jung's childhood dream signals an experience of special importance. It is an announcement that in the midst of a time of God-is-dead consciousness, new life is stirring from the depths of the psyche, struggling toward the light of consciousness in the form of an obscure, yet-unbroken code. Gerhard Wehr (1931-2015) German Protestant theologian, author, C. G. Jung, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1. Auflage 1. November 1975

You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality. Walt Disney (1901-1966) US American movie producer, director, animator, aphorism, cited in: Remembering Disney, presented by mywaltdisneyquotes, undated

Daydreaming is a short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings, during which a person's contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake. en.Wikipedia [Status January 2019]

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) US American literary critic, neuroticpoet, editor, romantic author, short story Eleonora, S. 446, first published by the literary annual The Gift, Philadelphia, 1842

The orbital frontal cortex is right behind the eyes. It can be seen in motion.

Dreaming

Emotion-driven

During sleep brain scans can track the status of the (very primitive) control center at the back of the brain. In the dream state the amygdala governing fear and emotions is active. Both the prefrontal cortex and the orbital frontal cortex (fact checker) are basically shut off (quiet).

Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the four kingdoms

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had a prophetic dream of a gigantic statue made of four metals, from its gold head to its feet of mingled iron and clay; as he watched, a stone "not cut by human hands" destroyed the statue and became a mountain filling the whole world.

The Israelite Daniel interpreted a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The statue represented four successive kingdoms beginning with Babylon.The stone and mountain signified a kingdom established by God which would never be destroyed nor given to another people.Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel's God and raises him to high office in Babylon. The book of which he is the hero divides into two parts, a set of tales in chapters 1-6, and the series of visions in chapters 7-12, the tales no earlier than the Hellenistic period, and the visions from the Maccabean era (the mid-2nd century BCE). Chapter 2 in its present form dates from no earlier than the first decades of the Seleucid empire (late 4th/early 3rd centuries BCE), but its roots may reach back to the fall of Babylon and the rise of the Persian Achaemenid empire. The overall theme of the Book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history. On the human level Daniel is set against the Babylonian magicians who fail to interpret the king's dream, but the cosmic conflict is between the god of Israel and the false Babylonian gods. What counts is not Daniel's human gifts, nor his education in the arts of divination, but "Divine Wisdom" and the power that belongs to God alone, as Daniel indicates when he urges his companions to seek God's mercy for the interpretation of the king's dreams.Summary In the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is troubled by a dream. He summons his magicians and astrologers to interpret it, but demands that they first tell him what the dream was. They protest that no man can do such a thing, and Nebuchadnezzar orders that they all be executed. This decree also falls on Daniel, but he, through the agency of his God, is able to tell the king the dream. It was a dream of a great statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mingled iron and clay. A great stone, not cut by human hands, fell on the feet of the statue and destroyed it, and the rock became a mountain that filled the whole world. Daniel then interprets the dream: it concerns four successive kingdoms, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar, which will be replaced by the everlasting kingdom of the God of heaven. Nebuchadnezzar affirms that Daniel's god is "the God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries." He lavishes gifts on Daniel and makes him chief of all the wise men and ruler over the province of Babylon.

What if ... what then?

What if you slept?And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?And what if, in your dream, you went to heavenand there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?And what if, when you awoke,you had the flower in your hand?Ah, what then?

Video interview with Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz (1915-1998) Swiss Jungian psychologist, Jungian scholar, author, The shadow, excerpted from The Way of the Dream, Shadow of the Man, part 2 of a series of 4, 2:22:15 hours duration, posted 4. August 2011, YouTube film, 8:50 minutes duration, posted 19. August 2011

Video presentation by Robert Moss (*1946) Australian historian, storyteller, neardeather, creator of shamanistic dreamwork Active Dreaming, journalist, author, Present! Robert Moss: Dreams and the NDE, presented by the US American TV station KMVT15 Community Media, YouTube film, 58:19 minutes duration, posted 11. November 2014

Robert Moss: "We don't need a NDE to know the lessons of death. We go to that place in our dreams."

2 A lucid dream is any dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. ⇑

3 The term 'lucid dream' was coined by Dutch author and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in his 1913 article A Study of Dreams, though descriptions of dreamers being aware that they are dreaming predates the term. ⇑